Water above fire, every line in its proper place: a hexagram of things already accomplished, where success is small and every line carries a warning.
The lower trigram is Li ☲, fire, bright and clinging; the upper is Kan ☵, water, whose quality is sinking into danger. Zhu Xi sees water and fire meeting so that each does its work, and all six lines in their correct places: a matter already completed. He reads the success as small and notes that the judgment and every line carry a warning, as such a time requires.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
既濟，亨小，利貞。初吉終亂。
Ji Ji: small success. It is fitting to be correct and firm. Good fortune at the start; disorder at the end.
既濟 means a matter already completed. Water and fire meet and each serves its purpose, and every line stands in its correct place, yang in the odd positions and yin in the even. Zhu Xi reads the words 亨小 as 小亨, “small success.” He observes that the judgment and all six line texts carry a note of warning, because the time calls for it. Completion is where the warning starts, not where it ends: from good fortune at the beginning, the text already looks toward disorder.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
水在火上，既濟。君子以思患而豫防之。
Water above fire: Ji Ji. The noble person, accordingly, thinks ahead to trouble and prepares against it early.
Zhu Xi leaves this sentence without comment. Water set over fire has each doing its work, yet the judgment already speaks of disorder at the end; so the noble person, at the moment of completion, considers trouble before it arrives.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yang (初九)changing line in the shared reading
曳其輪，濡其尾，无咎。
Dragging back the wheels, wetting the tail. No blame.
Wheels are at the bottom of a cart and a tail is at the back of a fox, so both suit the first line. Holding back the wheels keeps the cart from moving on; a wet tail keeps the fox from crossing. At the start of completion, Zhu Xi says, such care is the way to no blame.
Line 2, yin (六二)changing line in the shared reading
婦喪其茀，勿逐，七日得。
A woman loses the screen of her carriage. Do not chase it; in seven days it is regained.
Bright, central and correct, the second line answers the firm ruler in the fifth place and should be free to act. But in a time of completion that ruler does not stoop to the worthy, so the second is like a woman who has lost her carriage screen and cannot go out. Still, a central, correct way is never shelved for good; once the moment passes it moves again, with no need to chase it.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
高宗伐鬼方，三年克之，小人勿用。
Gaozong attacks the Guifang. After three years he conquers them. Do not employ petty people.
In a time of completion, a firm line in a firm place gives the image of Gaozong's campaign against the Guifang. “Three years” means a long effort before victory, which Zhu Xi reads as a warning not to act lightly. “Do not employ petty people” follows, he says, the same rule of reading as the top line of Hexagram 7, Shi.
Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading
繻有衣袽，終日戒。
For leaks there are rags at hand. Stay on guard all day long.
Soft in a soft place during a time of completion, this line prepares in advance and stays watchful. Zhu Xi cites Cheng Yi: 繻 should be read 濡, “to get wet,” and the rags are for plugging cracks and leaks in a boat. Keeping them ready and staying alert the whole day is the picture.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
東鄰殺牛，不如西鄰之禴祭，實受其福。
The eastern neighbor slaughters an ox, but this does not match the western neighbor's simple offering, which truly receives the blessing.
East is yang and west is yin, Zhu Xi explains: the fifth line holds the place of honor but its time has passed, unlike the second line below, whose time is just beginning. He adds that the line fits the case of King Wen and Zhou (紂), and that the judgment's “good fortune at the start, disorder at the end” means the same.
Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading
濡其首，厲。
Its head gets wet. Danger.
At the end of completion and the top of the perilous water trigram, a weak yin line gives the picture of a fox crossing that gets its head wet. Without caution, Zhu Xi says, this is the road to danger. At the start a wet tail meant restraint; at the end a wet head means going in too deep.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.
Characters corrected in this hexagram — Line 3, yang (九三): 伐其鬼方 → 伐鬼方 · Line 4, yin (六四): 繻其衣袽 → 繻有衣袽 · image: 預防 → 豫防